This is not true. I am not from the US or a lawyer but these donations sould show up on your receipt and count as your direct donation to the charity. The store is just a middleman and does not get any benefit. Here is a random, semi recent article about it you can find a lot more if you look it up online.
I used to work for a retail chain many years ago and I do not think this is true for everywhere.
When we were asking for donations it was tracked and if our location didn’t get enough donations our store manager would get talked to by his district manager. I don’t know exactly what happened to the money once it was donated, but I don’t think they would have been so adamant about getting the donations if they didn’t make anything from it.
This was like 20 years ago though, maybe its different now.
Yeah unfortunately the time and place it happened can change the legalities tremendously, but in general right now it appears that at least the type mentioned in the OP is in fact a donation from the customer directly to the charity. The business who is acting as a middleman will not have the donation affect their books, and the customer can keep these receipts so they can claim the donation on their own taxes.
Even if you don’t itemize your deductions, you can still claim up to 300$ in donations.
Edit: Apparently this was a temporary thing with the CARES act for 2020 and 2021 and is no longer active.
If the store is representing the extra charge as a donation to a specific charity, generally, the customer can deduct that.
If it’s far more vague, like, “Give $10 to help poor kids in Africa” the ultimate destination for the funds could be the company’s own ledgers, which it would then use for its own charitable activities and collect the tax deduction, as long as they “help poor kids in Africa.”
And some stores are just lying. CVS, for instance, was sued as part of a class action suit when, after the company pledges $10 million to the American Diabetes Association, then collected money from customers to fund that pledge.
Remember kids, they also get to use the money they guilted off of you to reduce their tax liability because they get credit for donating your money!
Edit: I’ll be dammed looks like I was wrong. Here is an article on [https://www.charitywatch.org/charity-donating-articles/store-check-out-charity-donations](why you might not want to donate anyway). I stand corrected.
This is not true. I am not from the US or a lawyer but these donations sould show up on your receipt and count as your direct donation to the charity. The store is just a middleman and does not get any benefit. Here is a random, semi recent article about it you can find a lot more if you look it up online.
I used to work for a retail chain many years ago and I do not think this is true for everywhere.
When we were asking for donations it was tracked and if our location didn’t get enough donations our store manager would get talked to by his district manager. I don’t know exactly what happened to the money once it was donated, but I don’t think they would have been so adamant about getting the donations if they didn’t make anything from it.
This was like 20 years ago though, maybe its different now.
Yeah unfortunately the time and place it happened can change the legalities tremendously, but in general right now it appears that at least the type mentioned in the OP is in fact a donation from the customer directly to the charity. The business who is acting as a middleman will not have the donation affect their books, and the customer can keep these receipts so they can claim the donation on their own taxes.
Even if you don’t itemize your deductions, you can still claim up to 300$ in donations.
Edit: Apparently this was a temporary thing with the CARES act for 2020 and 2021 and is no longer active.
They do not, at least in the US.
It depends on exactly what the store is doing.
If the store is representing the extra charge as a donation to a specific charity, generally, the customer can deduct that.
If it’s far more vague, like, “Give $10 to help poor kids in Africa” the ultimate destination for the funds could be the company’s own ledgers, which it would then use for its own charitable activities and collect the tax deduction, as long as they “help poor kids in Africa.”
And some stores are just lying. CVS, for instance, was sued as part of a class action suit when, after the company pledges $10 million to the American Diabetes Association, then collected money from customers to fund that pledge.